Gabby

Gabby does the Barry Schlecker double feature—the Newark Film Festival and the Brandywine Festival of the Arts—sneaks behind the scenes at University & Whist, and goes gaga at Northern Lights for Life.

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Fantastic Festivals

Gabby motions to rename September “Schlecktember.” All in favor? Not only did Gabby spend half a day in glorious darkness inside the Newark Cinema Center taking in fabulous independent films during the Newark Film Festival, she also spent a gorgeous, sun-dappled day tiptoeing around Brandywine Park in peep-toe leopard flats admiring the unique wares offered at the revamped, renamed Brandywine Festival of the Arts—both events brought to you exclusively by Barry Schlecker in September. Does he sleep? Gabby hopes not. He throws the best parties.

At the Festival of the Arts, Gabby scored darling rhinestone-drop earrings from local jeweler Gimme Faith Design, and was tickled pink by Julie Nelson and her On A Whim Crafts tent. Julie is a woman after Gabby’s own heart. After watching Gabby buy a panzoratti (let’s save the tsk tsks until Gabby can no longer put the L in LBD, shall we?), Julie admitted they’re the sole reason she attends the Italian Festival. Julie’s craft? She creates magical things out of, well, everything she can get her hands on. “I just started doing this a year ago,” she said. “And being here at the festival has been just fantastic. The people really appreciate handcrafted pieces.”

Poor Gabby was almost trampled by the crowd clamoring to get inside the Dixie Bags tent. Of course she had to see what all the fuss was about. The answer? Dog breed-inspired bags. To the woman who almost knocked Gabby over to get to the last patchwork poodle-clutch—Excuse me. Canine couture is decidedly out.

What is decidedly in, however, is puppy love, which Gabby overheard a certain local photographer gushing about to a friend. Local lensman extraordinaire Luigi Ciuffetelli, dressed in a flannel shirt, Converse high-tops and no-nonsense denim, talked dogs and waxed romantic about his old studio in Manhattan. But rest assured, readers, Gabby distinctly heard him say that he loves his newly remodeled digs in Little Italy. Luigi’s tent, featuring his outstanding work, was one of the festival’s best—and Gabby’s not just saying that because she’s had a crush on him for three years. Well, perhaps a little.

Kudos to Andrea Miller, publisher of Laugh! magazine, who had Gabby giggling over her hilarious content at her table. What’s not funny was Miller’s heartfelt remorse that The News Journal dropped its four color pages of comical content down to a column or two. “People need that,” she stressed. “But I get it—the economy.”

And of course, many thanks to the Friends of the Wilmington Parks, who not only had the good sense to stamp festival-goers’ hands with the exact green of Gabby’s dress, but who also were not once found without a smile.